Pliable plants

Many plants have an amazing ability to tolerate some rather harsh treatment.

For example, several species of tropical bats create tent-like shelters out of large
living leaves. The bats bite the leaf in certain places to collapse the sides, thus
creating a protected roost (photographed here from below) for themselves and their
young.

As these ‘tents’ are made of living leaves, they last for extended periods,
so the bats do not need to be constantly making new roosts. But how can the leaves
remain healthy when much of their water supply has been cut off?

The more that scientists delve into the mysteries of life, the more sophistication and complexity is revealed.

Researchers1 studying the
leaves of several plant species used by Costa Rican bats found that even when the
leaf’s major water-conducting veins are severed by the bat’s architectural
antics, so long as some conducting elements remain,2 the water supply is adequate to sustain the leaf.

Why should this be so? From a Biblical perspective, it makes complete sense that
what God allocated as food for man and animals (Genesis
1:29–30) would be able to withstand being pruned, grazed, munched
and crunched on a regular basis. And, as if to leave us in no doubt that a Master
Designer was responsible (Romans
1:20), not only can plants capture and convert sunlight energy into fodder
and fruit, but as a ‘by-product’ they provide us with breathable air
at the same time!

But evolutionists attempt to explain things according to a speculative story which
says everything came about by chance, and competition is the driving force—so
any ‘service’ provided by one species to another must in some way be
of benefit to itself. Thus, in the case of the ‘bat-tent’ example above,
the researchers, trying to identify an ‘evolutionary advantage’ for
the plant, suggest that the plant benefits because the collapsed leaf, weighed down
by bats, is less vulnerable to damage from wind or heavy rain!

Such lame attempts to explain the world around us as ultim­ately the result of an
accident fly in the face of ever-increasing evidence of the intricacy of living
things. The more scientists delve into the mysteries of life, the more sophistication
and complexity is revealed.3
This speaks of a Designer—the Lord, Maker of Heaven and Earth and all that
is in them, who remains faithful forever to those who trust in Him. ’He who
dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty’
(Psalm
91:1).

The complexity of the leaf vein system is striking, described
as having ‘an apparent hierarchy of some five conducting elements.’
Ref. 1. Return to text.

For example, recent research has overturned the traditional
scientific view that plant water-conducting tubes (xylem vessels), being composed
of dead cells, function merely as pipes, passively supplying water to thirsty leaves.
Instead, researchers have uncovered a (previously unsuspected) sophisticated water
transport regulation system, able to change flow rates both rapidly (within seconds)
and reversibly, and which frequently repairs breaks in its water column. Zwieniecki,
M.A., Melcher, P.J. and Holbrook, N.M., Hydrogel control of xylem hydraulic resistance
in plants, Science291(5506):1059–1062, 2001. Return to text.

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